VHA Regional Offices in New York Combine to Create Single Management Organization

June 17, 2008

VHA Inc., the national health care alliance, announced today that it has combined two of its regional offices, VHA Metro and VHA Empire State, to create a single entity, VHA Empire-Metro, which will serve hospitals in New York and four health care organizations in adjacent states whose markets include New York. Operating under a single governing, management, and financial structure, VHA Empire-Metro will maintain two offices, one in New York City and one in Syracuse.

Edward M. Dinan, FACHE, president and chief executive officer of Lawrence Hospital Center in Bronxville, N.Y., is the newly elected chairman of the board for VHA Empire-Metro. Dinan also has roots in upstate New York. The board consists of hospital CEOs and other senior executives from VHA member organizations in this geography.

“By combining staff resources and developing a common vision for how VHA works with hospitals in New York and several members in Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, we’ll maximize opportunities to help these hospitals improve their supply chain efficiency and clinical performance,” said William Himmelsbach, FACHE, who is the executive officer for the newly combined VHA Empire-Metro Office. For those VHA members in New York State, this combination will create opportunities to participate in pilot studies aimed at finding ways to improve economic efficiency and clinical effectiveness.

“VHA is an essential partner for member hospitals across the VHA Empire-Metro region. Hospitals are under intense pressure to improve quality while conserving resources. VHA enables us to do both,” said Dinan.

VHA supports hospitals through its three core services: supply chain management, which includes contracting for products and services; clinical improvement services, which involves helping hospitals meet or exceed national standards for patient care and patient safety; and through the formation of networks that enable member hospitals to work together to develop solutions for common clinical or operational challenges.

VHA Empire-Metro serves the following health care organizations across New York State and adjacent states:

These organizations own or manage more than 60 hospitals, which saved $56.1 million through VHA’s supply chain management programs in 2007, purchasing $1.14 billion in supplies through VHA and its contracting services company, Novation. Each VHA member voluntarily participates in VHA programs that help them help save money on supplies and improve patient care. Hospitals that buy supplies through VHA and Novation, save between two percent and five percent per year on those purchases.